Bee Populations

In collaboration with colleagues at Rutgers University, the American Museum of Natural History, and the University of Connecticut, we recently analyzed over 140 years of historical data on bee geographic distributions from major entomological collections in eastern North America. Our analysis indicated that some groups of bees, especially bumblebees and highly specialized oil-collecting bees, have declined over time. However, many other bee groups appear to be stable. Our results are important because there are increasing concerns that the factors that are causing honeybee declines may also be negatively impacting native bees. Our results suggest that there has not been a significant decline in native bees species over the last 140 years, in spite of significant changes in land use and agricultural intensification.